My Biggest Project: Jared's Bedroom Part 1

This is far from the big reveal. Faaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr from it.

I needed to post this to make myself feel good, that I was actually doing something to fix my son's room.

One day, I went on an afternoon spree at the mall and bought all things orange, blue and fun!

How hard can it be to get coordinating cloth here? Very Hard! This is the best I came up with.



I bought curtain fabric, shower curtain, a pail and dipper, hangers, little toy bins, etc etc.

I even bought kitchen towels in orange with basic math prints just because.  Then a brilliant idea hit me: every room needs a set of nice things hanging on the wall.

So I got my trusty staple, a canvass in my stash and went to work.



It only took a few minutes to produce that orange framed print! Sorry, I can't turn this photo right side up. But you get the picture. The other two are birth stats of Jared in a light blue frame and plastic letters hot glued on canvass.

Next mini project to post: spray paint a monobloc chair.

Arts and Crafts: Salt Dough Ornaments

Our usual weekend crafts are simple and requires materials you might already have in your cupboard. This one is easy, but messy.

Nevertheless, it was an afternoon filled with flour, messy and one happy kid.

Our salt dough ornaments are still unpainted as I type this, more than a month after we made them. Once we perfect this, we'll have our own personalized tree ornaments for 2012.

So looking forward to that.

Prepare all the materials and ingredients: salt, flour, water, stamps and mixing tools

These big plastic letters in my craft box came in handy, as well as these love-themed stamps

Mix everthing together

Knead and knead. This is the part the little boy enjoyed the most. It was the most messy part!

Then, roll with a pin or a bottle and cut into circles

Stamp, mold to your heart's desire

Get a chopstiick and poke a hole. Make sure it goes all the way through.

Tadah! All ready to bake in the oven!

 

Say AAAaAAAAA

The boy is proudly showing off his clean teeth. He likes to tell everyone he was brave at the dentist office and that he let the dentist clean his teeth.

But oh, he bargained with the dentist and it went on for about 20 minutes. Then when we can't talk him into openng his mouth for the tooth filling, his dad and 2 assistants restrained him while the dentist did her thing.

My New Happy Place

Sometimes, work gets too hectic that by lunchtime, you just need to get away from it all.
Everytime I eat lunch at Mary Grace cafe, it's  lunchtime well-spent. I have tried a few pasta dishes but lately, my favorite is Lemon Scampi.

I forgot the name of this one. somehting with dory.

I can eat this everyday: lemon scampi

Looking forward to my next lunch date here.

My Motorcycle Diaper Cake

 I like nice packaging. It somehow makes me treasure the gift even before I open it.
So, having come across this easy craft online, I set to work to create an impressive but easy diaper cake that isn't in the usual shape.

It's a diaper motorcycle cake!

Stats of twin babies of a very dear friend.

Switchplate and Wall Clock Re-do

I am in an DIY mode recently.

Somehow, I just got tired of looking at our violet wall clock which is so out of place in our ever so sunny kitchen.

Didn't have anything better to do with my dingy switch plate cover, too.

But I have paper on hand and my ever-reliable home -made modge podge (watered down glue) so off to work I went. 

This is an easy afternoon craft that just takes cutting and pasting.

 From drab

To fab ( cliché!)

 

I'm loving this new happier versions of our wall clock and switch plate.

Scenes from Y2011: A Visit to the Fire Station

It was a lucky find, this fire station discovery. We were just dropping off our laundry and took a new road going back to the house and what do you know. Our neighborhood fire station is just around this corner.

Had fun posing with the fiery red engines!

Arts & Crafts: Soap Making

Friday nights = cramming for last minute arts and crafts inspiration on the net. About three weeks ago, it was all about hand made soaps. We're doing a lot of improvements in the house and needed to cut on costs, I have all the ingredients on hand, and I never liked the commercially available soaps anyway so here's a perfect Saturday morning project.

How to make your own liquid handwash.


1. Fill your tummy and then lay down the ingredients on the table.

- a bar of your favorite organic soap ( we used Giga spearmingt soap)

- a few drops of glycerin (available at Mercury Drugstore)

- a cheese grater, a pot of water and a wooden spoon


2. Grate the bar of soap

3. Pour the grated soap on the pan. Bring to a boil and make sure the last string of soap is melted. Ang kalat ng counter! Pardon the mess.

4.  All a few drops of glycerin to make it thicker. Let this mixture stand for 24 hours. It should get cloudy and thick after a few hours and should have the consistency of phlegm (hahaha)

Okay, ours never did. We probably used too much water. It smelled good though so we poured them on recycled but personalized pump bottles.

Next time, we'll use two bars of soap intead of one.

Don't blink

Or the days will just pass by. Look at how fast this boy has grown!

Me (in blue) Jared and daddy and my friend Mitch and my godson MJ.
The boys were born just two weeks apart. Taken at Jared's christening.

1st birthday party

The boys, Jared (left) and MJ, at almost 4 years old. It's hard to keep them still for the camera!

Jared at almost 2 months, McDo Macapagal

At almost the same spot, more than 3 years after

Hayyy....